Salah Stétié was born in Beirut in 1929. After studies in Labanon and France, he turned his attention towards the prooblems of contemporary poetry, establishing exchanges and friendships with writers such as Jouve, Mandiargues, Ungaretti, Bonnefoy, Du Bouchet and David Gascoyne. After launching the cultural weekly L'Orient litteraire in Beirut, he developed two parallel careers, as a writer and as a distinguished diplomat, in Paris, Morocco, The Hague and elsewhere. He has published 40 books, and was awarded Le Grand Prix de la Francophonie in 1995.